1.
Eurovision Song Contest
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The competition was based upon the existing Sanremo Music Festival held in Italy since 1951. The contest has been broadcast every year for sixty years, since its inauguration in 1956 and it is also one of the most watched non-sporting events in the world, with audience figures having been quoted in recent years as anything between 100 million and 600 million internationally. Eurovision has also been broadcast outside Europe to several countries that do not compete, such as the United States, Canada, New Zealand, and China. An exception was made in 2015, when Australia was allowed to compete as a guest entrant as part of the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the event. In November 2015, the EBU announced that Australia was invited back as a participant in the 2016 contest after their success in 2015, following their success again in 2016, Australia will compete again in 2017. Since 2000, the contest has also been broadcast over the Internet via the Eurovision website, winning the Eurovision Song Contest provides a short-term boost to the winning artists career, but rarely results in long-term success. Notable exceptions are ABBA, Bucks Fizz and Céline Dion, all of whom launched successful careers after their wins. Ireland holds the record for the highest number of wins, having won the contest seven times—including four times in five years in 1992,1993,1994 and 1996. Under the current voting system, the highest scoring winner is Jamala of Ukraine who won the 2016 contest in Stockholm, under the previous system, in place from 1975 to 2015, the highest scoring winner is Alexander Rybak of Norway with 387 points in 2009. Satellite television did not exist, and the Eurovision Network comprised a terrestrial microwave network, the name Eurovision was first used in relation to the EBUs network by British journalist George Campey in the London Evening Standard in 1951. The first contest was held in the town of Lugano, Switzerland, seven countries participated—each submitting two songs, for a total of 14. This was the only contest in more than one song per country was performed, since 1957. The 1956 contest was won by the host nation, Switzerland, the programme was first known as the Eurovision Grand Prix. This Grand Prix name was adopted by Denmark, Norway and the Francophone countries, the Grand Prix has since been dropped and replaced with Concours in French, but not in Danish or Norwegian. The Eurovision network is used to carry news and sports programmes internationally. However, in the minds of the public, the name Eurovision is most closely associated with the Song Contest, a country as a participant is represented by one television broadcaster from that country, typically, but not always, that countrys national public broadcasting organisation. The programme is hosted by one of the participant countries, during this programme, after all the songs have been performed, the countries then proceed to cast votes for the other countries songs, nations are not allowed to vote for their own song. At the end of the programme, the song with the most points is declared as the winner, the programme is invariably opened by one or more presenters, welcoming viewers to the show

2.
History of the Eurovision Song Contest
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The history of the Eurovision Song Contest began with an idea of Sergio Pugliese, of the Italian television RAI, and then approved by Marcel Bezençon of the European Broadcasting Union. The contest was based on the Italian Sanremo Music Festival and was designed to test the limits of television broadcast technology. The first contest took place on 24 May 1956, where seven nations participated, as the Contest progressed, the rules grew increasingly complex and participation levels rose to pass forty nations at the end of the 20th century. As more countries came on board over subsequent decades and technology advanced, the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s led to a sudden increase in numbers, with many former Eastern Bloc countries queuing up to compete for the first time. This process continued into the 2005 contest, in which both Bulgaria and Moldova made their debut, san Marino took part in the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest in Belgrade, Serbia, together with Azerbaijan. Australia made their debut in the 2015 contest and became the first country from the Oceania region to participate in the contest, although their participation was originally announced as a one-off event, the country was subsequently invited to participate in the 2016 contest. The earliest period in the Eurovision history is marked by the style of songs which participated, famous musical and film stars would participate without prejudice, with Italian winners of the Sanremo Festival and such British names as Patricia Bredin and Bryan Johnson. With a live orchestra the norm in the years, and simple sing-a-long songs on every radio station. Iconic songs such as Volare and Serge Gainsbourgs Poupée de cire, in the beginning, it was obvious for the participants that they should sing in their countrys national language. However, as the Swedish entry in 1965, Absent Friend was sung in English, national languages had to be used in all lyrics, including Maltese when the island nation made its debut. Songwriters across Europe soon tagged onto the notion that success would come if the judges could understand the content, resulting in such entries as Boom-Bang-A-Bang. The lyrics were allowed to contain phrases in other languages. In 1973, the rules on language use was relaxed, and those freedom of language rules would be soon reversed in 1977, to return with apparent permanent status in the 1999 contest, with the intervening years waning from highlights to dead-weight years. Other than heavily infused pop versions, rap has been next to completely ignored, one result of the attempt to modernise the songs in the Contest was the abolition of the obligatory use of the live orchestra, to which all songs had to perform. This decision was made in 1997 and removed the requirement for songs to be re-composed for playback with a live orchestra. As of 1999, the host country hasnt been obliged to provide a live orchestra, no attempt has been made to return the Contest to the days of live bands and violins. This rule most likely exists because there isnt enough time to wire the instruments during the break between the songs. On the other hand, a tape may have no voices on it

3.
List of host cities of the Eurovision Song Contest
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This page is a list of cities and venues that have hosted the Eurovision Song Contest, one or more times. Future venues are shown in italics, since 1958, the host city has customarily been in the winner country of the previous year. There have been exceptions, however, when certain issues have prevented the winner to host the years contest. The host country then passed to the country that had come second, such events occurred in 1960,1963,1972,1974 and 1980. With 6 contests, Dublin is the city that has hosted the most contests and it is followed by London and Luxembourg, and Copenhagen and Stockholm. Host City Insignia is a trophy awarded to cities hosting the Eurovision Song Contest. The symbol is a key ring to which the Eurovision Song Contest Host Cities can attach their city key or other symbol representing the city. Additionally, there is a fob with a picture of the Helsinki Senate Square attached to the key ring, the idea of the rotating trophy was proposed jointly by the City of Helsinki, the Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE and EBU in connection with the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest. Hand-engraved on the ring are the texts, Eurovision Song Contest Host City, all Host Cities up until the year 2006. The concept and fob were designed by the ANTEEKSI Team and the ring by jewellery designer Taru Tonder, List of host cities of the ABU Song Festivals List of host cities of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest City of Helsinki news at 13.09

4.
List of Eurovision Song Contest presenters
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This list includes those who have acted as presenters of the Eurovision Song Contest, since the competitions inception in 1956. From 1988, it has been the norm to have two presenters for the contest, all contests before 1978 have had one presenter, and only a few after 1988 have had only one presenter. The 1999 contest was the first to consist of three presenters in one contest, kvalifikacija za Millstreet was the preselection for the Eurovision Song Contest 1993. Seven countries took part, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Estonia, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia

5.
Voting at the Eurovision Song Contest
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The winner of the Eurovision Song Contest is selected by a positional voting system. Each country awards two sets of 12,10, 8–1 points to their 10 favourite songs, one from their professional jury, the current system has been in place since 2016. In 2003, Eircoms telephone polling system malfunction, irish broadcaster RTÉ did not receive the polling results from Eircom in time, and substituted votes by a panel of judges. Between 1997 and 2003, lines were opened to the public for five minutes after the performance. Between 2004 and 2006 the lines were opened for 10 minutes, in 2010 viewers were allowed to vote during the performances, but this was rescinded for the 2012 contest. The BBC contacted regional juries by telephone to choose the 1956 winners, and this method continued to be used until 1993. The following year saw the first satellite linkup to juries, to announce the votes, the contests presenters connect by satellite to each country in turn and inviting a spokesperson to read the countrys votes in French or English. The presenters originally repeated the votes in both languages, but since 2004 the votes have been translated due to time constraints, the scoreboard displays the number of points each country has received and, since 2008, a progress bar indicating the number of countries which have voted. Note The most-used voting system was last used for the 1969 contest and this system was used from 1957 to 1961 and from 1967 to 1969. Ten jurors in each country each cast one vote for their favourite song, in 1969 this resulted in a four-way tie for first place, with no tie-breaking procedure. A second round of voting in the event of a tie was introduced to this system the following year, from 1962 to 1966, a voting system similar to the current one was used. With the latter system, a country could choose to give points to two instead of three, in 1965, Belgium awarded the United Kingdom six points and Italy three. Although it was possible to one country nine points, this never occurred. The 1971,1972, and 1973 contests saw the jurors in vision for the first time, each country was represented by two jurors, one older than 25 and one younger, with at least ten years difference in their ages. Each juror gave a minimum of one point and a maximum of five points to each song, in 1974 the previous system of ten jurors was used, and the following year the current system was introduced. Spokespeople were next seen on screen in 1994 with a link to the venue. The 2004 contest had its first semifinal, with a change in voting. This resulted in Ukraines Ruslana finishing first, with a record 280 points, to date, non-qualifying countries are still allowed to vote in the final

6.
List of Eurovision Song Contest winners
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Sixty-four songs have won the Eurovision Song Contest, an annual competition organised by member countries of the European Broadcasting Union. The contest, which has been broadcast every year since its debut in 1956, is one of the television programmes in the world. The contests winner has been determined using numerous voting techniques throughout its history, the country awarded the most points is declared the winner. The first Eurovision Song Contest was not won on points, but by votes, there have been 60 contests, with one winner each year except the tied 1969 contest, which had four. Twenty-six different countries have won the contest, switzerland won the first contest in 1956. The country with the highest number of wins is Ireland, with seven, portugal is the country with the longest history in the contest without a win, it made its forty-eighth appearance at the 2015 contest. The only person to have won more than once as performer is Irelands Johnny Logan, Logan is also one of only five songwriters to have written more than one winning entry. This unique distinction makes Logan the only person to have three Eurovision victories to his/her credit, as singer, songwriter or both. The other four songwriters with more than one winning entry to their credit are, Willy van Hemert, Yves Dessca, Rolf Løvland, however, throughout the history of the contest, relatively few of these artists have gone on to be huge international stars. ABBA went on to be one of the most successful bands of its time, three countries have won twice in a row, Spain, Luxembourg and Israel. Along with Switzerlands win in the first contest, Serbia is the other country to win with its debut entry, though Serbia had competed prior as part of Yugoslavia and Serbia. Under the voting system used between 1975 and 2015, the winner of the contest was decided by the final voting nation on eleven occasions. Changes to the system, including a steady growth in the number of countries participating/voting. Ukraines Jamala holds the record of the highest number of points in the contests history, Norways Alexander Rybak holds the largest margin of victory in absolute points, a 169-point cushion over second place in 2009. Italys Gigliola Cinquetti holds the record for largest victory by percentage, under the voting system used from 1975 until 2015, the lowest winning score was Norways Bobbysocks. 123 points earned when winning Eurovision 1985, while the lowest winning total ever is the 18 points scored by each of the four winning countries in 1969. 2011 winner Azerbaijan Eldar & Nigar, hold the lowest average score for a song under that system. The United Kingdom has finished second fifteen times at Eurovision, more than any other country, the most successful country never to have won the Contest is Malta, having finished second in 2002 and 2005 and third in 1992 and 1998

7.
Eurovision Song Contest 1956
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1956 was the debut edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, held at the Teatro Kursaal in Lugano, Switzerland on Thursday 24 May. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union, the music competition was inspired by the Italian Sanremo Music Festival. Lohengrin Filipello hosted the first contest which lasted approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes, seven countries participated, with each of them performing two songs. Two jury members from all participating countries cast their votes in secret, from that meeting, the concept of the Eurovision Song Contest was born. A decision was reached to hold the first ever contest in the Swiss resort of Lugano the following year, the chosen venue for the contest was the Teatro Kursaal in Lugano, a city in the south of Switzerland, in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino, which borders Italy. The event was inspired by the Italian music festival, as well as that the contest was hosted in Italian. The programme lasted approximately one hour and 40 minutes, although it was mainly a radio programme, there were cameras in the studio for the benefit of the few Europeans who possessed a television. The interval act, whistling by the Joyeux Rossignols, had to be extended due to a delay in the voting procedure and it had been strongly recommended that each participating country have a preliminary national song contest. Two jury members from all participating countries travelled to Lugano to cast their vote on the songs in secret, the voting system at this Contest allowed juries to vote for any competing song, including those of their own country. Additionally, the Swiss jury was allowed by the EBU to vote also on behalf of the Luxembourg delegation, some even think that the Swiss entry won because of this rule. It is one of two contests to not have survived completely, along with the 1964 contest. Seven countries participated in the first ever contest, each were represented with two songs, two more countries, Austria, and Denmark were also expected to take part in the contest, but they missed the submission deadline and therefore could not take part. Each performance had a maestro who conducted the orchestra, the conductors listed conducted both performances for the indicated countries. Simon Barclays book The Complete and Independent Guide to the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 includes a table with what appears to be the rankings, under the chart he writes that the votes awarded have never been disclosed. According to writer Jan Feddersen, Im Wartesaal zum großen Glück was probably voted No.2 behind Lys Assia, the participating national broadcasters sent commentators to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language. Details of the commentators and the station that they represented are shown in the table below. Official website Listen to the whole 1956 contest

8.
Eurovision Song Contest 1957
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1957 was the second edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held on Sunday 3 March 1957 in Frankfurt-am-Main, West Germany and it was won by the Netherlands with Net als toen, performed by Corry Brokken. Like the first 1956 edition, this one was mainly a radio programme. In fact, not only were the official 1956 scores withheld and it was planned at the time that each participating country would take it in turns to host the event. However, as more countries wished to participate, this became impractical, the contest took place in Frankfurt am Main, one of the largest cities in, at the time West Germany. The host venue was the Großer Sendesaal des Hessischen Rundfunks, a building, music hall, today it is used as a music hall. After being devastated in the Second World War during the early 1940s, with investments coming in from both national and international financial institutions,1957, the year of the contest, already saw the first of Frankfurts high-rise business buildings. In this years contest the Italian entry lasted for 5,09 minutes and it was because of songs like the former that a rule was eventually introduced restricting each song to a maximum of 3 minutes, this rule still applies. In a change of rules from the years contest, duos were allowed to compete. Danish representatives, Birthe Wilke and Gustav Winckler, were the first of such acts to participate under this rule change, at the end of their performance, the couple exchanged the longest kiss in the contests history, although only people with televisions could actually see it. This was due to a member of the staff forgetting to give a pre-arranged sign that the kiss should end. This was the first year where the juries were contacted by telephone and it was also the first time the Netherlands won the contest. Another notable change was that the national juries could not vote for their own song, belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, and Switzerland make their second appearances following their débuts in 1956. With those joining in 1957, the number of countries was ten. Each performance had a conductor who conducted the orchestra, Corry Brokken for Netherlands, and Lys Assia for Switzerland. The table below shows the order in which votes were cast during the 1957 contest along with the spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country. Each national broadcaster sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language. Details of the commentators and the station for which they represented are also included in the table below

9.
Eurovision Song Contest 1958
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1958 was the third Eurovision Song Contest. The event was held on Wednesday 12 March 1958 at AVRO Studios, the winner was France with the song Dors, mon amour, performed by André Claveau, written by Pierre Delanoë and composed by Hubert Giraud. As in 1956, it is the only contest that has not featured a song in the English language. The 1958 contest continued with the policy implemented the year before where each country was limited to one song entry and this policy has been retained to date. Hilversum, a municipality and a town in the province of North Holland, is known as the Media Capital of the Netherlands, one such media network was the host of the event, Nederlandse Televisie Stichting. The contest was held in one of Avro studios halls, the background of the stage had an images-board to show behind each singer, to contextually feat each songs lyrics. The center-front of the stage before the performers, and the area from the stage with the orchestra and stairs entrance, were decorated with tulips. The juries were not in the studio as in 1956, for the 1958 event, they remained in their own countries, listening to the event. Once the songs had all been sung, juries announced their results via telephone in order of presentation. The Italian entry was not picked up properly in some of the other countries and it was the only year that the host country finished in last place until 2015, and the first time more than one country was placed last. The interval act was music by the Metropole Orkest, under the direction of maestro Dolf van der Linden, there were two interval acts, one in the middle of the competing songs performances and one after all the rest of the competing performances were shown. Sweden, a country that would later be one of the most successful in the contest, the United Kingdom decided to withdraw from the contest after initially planning to submit an entry. After the contest, the Italian entry Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu by Domenico Modugno went on to become a worldwide hit. During the 1st Grammy Awards, held on 4 May 1959 at Hollywoods Beverly Hilton Hotel, Nel blu dipinto di blu received two awards, for Record of the Year and Song of the Year. The song is the only recording to achieve this honour. The song also managed to reach the No.1 spot in the US-American Billboard Charts, the song was also voted the second best Eurovision entry of all time at the 50th anniversary show Congratulations in 2005. Each performance had a conductor who maestro the orchestra, each country had 10 jury members who each decided the best song and each awarded 1 point. The table below shows the order in which votes were cast during the 1958 contest along with the spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country

10.
Eurovision Song Contest 1959
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1959 was the fourth edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held on Wednesday 11 March 1959 in Cannes, France, the contest was won by the Netherlands with the song Een beetje, performed by Teddy Scholten. This was their second and the first time a country had won the contest twice, willy van Hemert was also the lyricist of Net als toen, which won the Eurovision Song Contest 1957. Van Hemert was the first person to win the Eurovision Song Contest twice, the original building was built in 1949 and was located on the boulevard of Promenade de la Croisette, on the present site of the JW Marriott Cannes. A new rule was created for this Eurovision, ensuring that no professional publishers or composers were allowed in the national juries, Italy gave one point to France, no points to the UK and seven points to the Netherlands placing them just three points ahead of the UK. Something that occurred this year, but never again, was more than the winning entry was performed once again. The second and third placed songs, United Kingdom and France, were allowed to sing again at the end of the show, together with eventual winner, luxembourg withdrew from the contest for the first time. The United Kingdom returned after missing the previous contest and finished second for the first time, the UK would have 15 second-place finishes in the countrys history in the contest. Monaco made its debut in the contest, but came last, each performance had a conductor who maestro the orchestra. Birthe Wilke for Denmark, and Domenico Modugno for Italy, the table above shows the order in which votes were cast during the 1959 contest along with the spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country. Each national broadcaster sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language. Details of the commentators and the station for which they represented are also included in the table below

11.
Eurovision Song Contest 1960
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1960 was the fifth edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It was held on Tuesday 29 March 1960 in London, although the Netherlands had won the contest in 1959, the Netherlands Television Foundation declined to host another contest so soon after staging the event in 1958. The honour of hosting the contest therefore passed to the United Kingdom, therefore, the BBC chose Catherine Boyle to be the mistress of ceremonies at the contest for the first time. Frances win this year was their second in the contest, the contest was won by France with the song Tom Pillibi, performed by Jacqueline Boyer. The 1960 Eurovision Song Contest was hosted in London, the Royal Festival Hall, the venue for the 1960 contest, is a 2, 900-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, the result was a win for France, however Germany, Monaco and the UK led in the early stages of voting. The UK came second with 25 points, four more points than the song in 1959. Interest in the contest started to grow across Europe, with the number of participating nations increasing to 13 this year, norway made its debut with one of their leading jazz singers. Luxembourg returned to the contest after a break with a song in native Luxembourgish language. The Netherlands were mistakenly announced as Holland, each country had 10 jury members who each awarded 1 point to their favourite song. The table above shows the order in which votes were cast during the 1960 contest along with the spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country. Each national broadcaster sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language. Details of the commentators and the station for which they represented are also included in the table below. ^ The song was performed in Norwegian, but the title of the song is in the North Sami dialect of the Sami languages, translating as the expression Hey Hey

12.
Eurovision Song Contest 1961
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1961 was the sixth Eurovision Song Contest. It was held on 18 March 1961 and was the first to place on a Saturday night. It was hosted in the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès located in Cannes, France, Luxembourg won for its first time with the song Nous les amoureux performed in French by Jean-Claude Pascal. As the contest overran its time, and the show was being broadcast live. The original building was built in 1949 and was located on the boulevard of Promenade de la Croisette and it also hosted the 1959 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. Jacqueline Joubert presented the show, having already done so two years earlier in 1959, the stage used for the 1961 Contest was notably larger than in previous years and was decorated with flowers. It is noticeable that during the voting, Luxembourg gave the UK8 points and it was the largest amount of points given to a country by a single jury since 1958, when Denmark provided France with 9 points. Such a high number of obtained by a country wouldnt be achieved until 1970. A total of sixteen countries took part in the Contest, including the three debuting countries, Finland, Spain, and Yugoslavia, there were no returning or withdrawing countries this particular year. Each performance had a conductor who maestro the orchestra, each country had 10 jury members who each awarded 1 point to their favourite song. The table below shows the order in which votes were cast during the 1961 contest along with the spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country. Each national broadcaster sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language. Details of the commentators and the station for which they represented are also included in the table below. All the juries announced their votes in French

13.
Eurovision Song Contest 1962
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1962 was the seventh edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest, held on Sunday 18 March 1962 at the Villa Louvigny in Luxembourg. The contest was won for a time by France with the song Un premier amour. This marked the first time a country had won three contests, austria, Belgium, Netherlands, and Spain all scored nul points for the first time. The 1962 Eurovision Song Contest was hosted in Luxembourg City, the venue chosen to host the 1962 contest was the Villa Louvigny. The building served as the headquarters of Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Télédiffusion and it is located in Municipal Park, in the Ville Haute quarter of the centre of the city. After Frances entry had been performed, there was a power failure rendering the screens dark. There also seemed to be an even shorter power failure during the Netherlands entry, the power failure seemed to affect the Netherlands score during the voting. Nevertheless, the turned out to be popular in Europe after the contest. All countries who participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 1961 returned for a consecutive year, with no new countries making a début. Each performance had a conductor who maestro the orchestra, the contest saw the return of four artists this year, with three artists having previously participated in the 1960. Camillo Felgen for Luxembourg, François Deguelt for Monaco, and Fud Leclerc making his appearance for Belgium. Jean Philippe, having previous represented France in 1959, returned to the contest as a representative for Switzerland, each national broadcaster also sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language. Details of the commentators and the station for which they represented are also included in the table below

14.
Eurovision Song Contest 1963
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1963 was the eighth annual Eurovision Song Contest. The contest was held in London, United Kingdom, after the British broadcaster BBC stepped in to organise the event, france had won the 1962 edition with the right to host this following one but were unable to, due to financial shortcomings. The contest was won by Denmark with the song Dansevise, performed by Grethe & Jørgen Ingmann, the host venue was the BBC Television Centre, White City, London, which opened in 1960. It is one of the most readily recognisable facilities of its type having appeared as the backdrop for many BBC programmes and it remained to be one of the largest such facilities in the world until it closed in March 2013. Two studios were used, one for the mistress of ceremonies Katie Boyle, the audience, and the scoreboard, the other for the performers and the orchestra accompanying them. Unusually, a microphone was employed - the viewer doesnt see this. This was not the case, but this innovation was to create a new look for the contest, one controversy this year was during the voting. Katie Boyle asked Norway to repeat their results, but the Norwegian spokesman asked Katie to return to them all the other results were in. When Katie went back to Norway again the votes had mysteriously altered, thus changing the outcome of the contest, in fact, the Norwegian spokesman had not given the correct votes on the first occasion. Monaco was also asked to do their voting a second time as initially Monaco give one point to both the United Kingdom and Luxembourg, however, when Katie Boyle went back to Monaco to receive the votes again Monacos one vote to Luxembourg was efficiently discarded. The participating conductors were, This year saw the return of just one artist, each country had 20 jury members who awarded their five favourite songs 5,4,3,2, and 1 points in order. All those points would then be added up and the five song with the most points got 5,4,3,2, each national broadcaster also sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language. Details of the commentators and the station for which they represented are also included in the table below. Media related to Eurovision Song Contest 1963 at Wikimedia Commons Official website

15.
Eurovision Song Contest 1964
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1964 was the ninth edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, after the victory in the 1963 edition. Italy won the contest for the first time scoring 49 points with the song Non ho letà, the host venue for the contest was Tivolis Koncertsal in Denmarks capital city Copenhagen, which lies within Denmarks famous amusement park and pleasure garden Tivoli Gardens. Each country had 10 jury members who distributed three points among their one, two, or three favourite songs, the points were totaled and the first, second, and third placed songs were awarded 5,3, and 1 votes in order. If only one song got every point within the jury it would get all 9 points, if only two songs were chosen, the songs would get 6 and 3 points in order. A political protest occurred after the Swiss entry, a man trespassed onto the stage holding a banner that read Boycott Franco & Salazar, whilst this was going on, television viewers were shown a shot of the scoreboard, once the man was removed the contest went on. Her performance was given a repeat on British television the following afternoon. As with the 1956 contest, no recording of the actual contest performance is known to survive. Reports say that this is there was a fire at the studios of DR. No other broadcaster recorded the show other than for the Winners reprise. It has been speculated that the BBC once held a copy of the show, as an empty tape canister marked Eurovision 1964 was found during a storage cleanup, but the tape was missing, presumably wiped. The audio of the show however is still intact. Sweden did not participate because of a boycott by singers, portugal made its début in the contest, however they became the first country to score nul points on their début. Germany, Switzerland, and Yugoslavia also scored nul points for the first time, the Netherlands became the first country to send a singer of non-European ancestry, Anneke Grönloh was of Indonesian descent. The Spanish group Los TNT was the first group of three or more participants of the history of the ESC, one artist returned to the contest this year, Switzerlands Anita Traversi that represented the country in 1960. Each national broadcaster sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language. Details of the commentators and the station for which they represented are also included in the table below

16.
Eurovision Song Contest 1965
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1965 was the tenth edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held in Naples, Italy, following the Italian victory at the previous 1964 edition. Luxembourg won, for the time in the history of the contest, with the song Poupée de cire, poupée de son, performed by France Gall. Belgium, Finland, Germany, and Spain each scored points for the second time. The 1965 contest marked the debut of Ireland, a country which went on to dominate the competition. This was also the first contest with over 16 countries participating with a total of 18 entries, the Swedish entry was also sung in English. For the first time since Dutch victory Een Beetje in 1959, the contest took place in Naples, the capital of region Campania in southern Italy and the third-largest city in Italy, after Rome and Milan. This is Italys first hosting of the Eurovision Song Contest, the host venue was the then new Sala di Concerto della RAI, founded few years prior to the contest, in the late fifties and early sixties. It is located in Viale Marconi in the district of Fuorigrotta, the structure has three TV studios for a total of 1227 m² and capacity of 370 persons, used for the filming of programs and fiction and an auditorium. The Neapolitan song archives are housed in it. Each country had 10 jury members who distributed three points among their one, two, or three favourite songs, the points were totalled and the first, second, and third placed songs were awarded 5,3, and 1 votes in order. If only one song got every point within the jury it would get all 9 points, if only two songs were chosen, the songs would get 6 and 3 points in order. 18 countries took part, with the Eurovision Song Contest reaching its highest ever number, sweden returned after a one-year absence, and Ireland debuted in the competition. Luxembourg won for the time with the highly controversial Poupée De Cire. Belgium, Finland, Germany, and Spain all scored points for the second time. The competition was also broadcast via the Intervision network, to the Eastern European nations for the very first time, ingvar Wixell, the Swedish participant performed his song in English instead of the original Swedish title Annorstädes vals. The native languages were used for all of the other participants and this led to a rule being introduced for the next 1966 edition, that meant all participants had to perform their songs using one of their national languages. Each performance had a conductor who led the orchestra, each country had 10 jury members who distributed three points among their one, two, or three favourite songs

17.
Eurovision Song Contest 1966
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1966 was the 11th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held on 5 March 1966 in Luxembourg, Luxembourg, the host venue was Grand Auditorium de RTL in Villa Louvigny. The winner was Austria with the song Merci, Chérie performed and composed by Udo Jürgens and this would remain Austrias only win in the contest until their second win in 2014. The rule stating that a country could only sing in any of its national languages was created in this year. The 1966 Eurovision Song Contest was hosted in Luxembourg City, the venue chosen to host the 1966 contest was the Villa Louvigny, which also hosted the Eurovision Song Contest 1962. The building served as the headquarters of Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Télédiffusion and it is located in Municipal Park, in the Ville Haute quarter of the centre of the city. During the voting process, the presenter accidentally greeted United Kingdom by saying Good night, London. She then realized her mistake and said Good evening, London, after Michael Aspel,1966 marked the year the first ever black singer graced the Eurovision stage, Milly Scott representing the Netherlands. She was also the first singer to use a portable microphone and this was the last contest that Denmark participated in until 1978, more than a decade later. It was also one of the first contests in which an entry was not accompanied by an orchestra, during the Saturday afternoon rehearsal Modugno performed the new arrangement with three of his own musicians as opposed to the orchestra, which went over the three minute time limit. Following his rehearsal Modungo was confronted by the producers about exceeding the time limit and was asked to use the original arrangement with the orchestra. Modungo was so dissatisfied with the orchestra that he threatened to withdraw from the Contest, despite websites and the official programme listing Angelo Giacomazzi as the conductor, Giacomazzi actually played the piano for the entry. All countries which participated in the 1965 contest returned for a consecutive year. There were no new nations, nor any returning, nor withdrawals, each performance had a conductor who was maestro of the orchestra. Udo Jürgens from Austria whose previous participations were in 1964 and 1965, and Domenico Modugno from Italy,1. ^ The song also contains phrases in French. Each national broadcaster sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language. Details of the commentators and the station for which they represented are also included in the table below

18.
Eurovision Song Contest 1967
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1967 was the 12th edition of Eurovision Song Contest. It took place on 8 April 1967 in Vienna, Austria following Udo Jürgens win at the 1966 contest. The presenter became confused whilst the voting was taking place, and declared the United Kingdoms entry to be the winner before the last country, shaw intensely disliked the composition, though her attitude towards the song somewhat mellowed in later years, even releasing a new version in 2007. The contest long remained the only time Austria had hosted the event, the 1967 Eurovision Song Contest was held in Vienna, the capital of Austria. The venue for the contest was the Hofburg Palace, which was the winter residence the Habsburg dynasty. It currently serves as the residence of the President of Austria. The stage setup was a bit unusual this year. There were two revolving mirrored walls on both ends of the stage and started revolving at the start of song and stopped revolving at the end of each song. The hostess, Erika Vaal ended the program by congratulating the winning song, country, denmark chose not to participate and left the contest at this point, to return in 1978. The reason was that the new director for the TV entertainment department at DR thought that the money could be spent in a better way, the United Kingdoms win was their first. Television presenter, artist and musician, Rolf Harris provided the commentary for BBC Television viewers, switzerland received zero votes for the second time. Portugal was represented by Eduardo Nascimento who was the first black singer in the history of Eurovision Song Contest. Rumours claimed that Portuguese prime minister Salazar had chosen this particular singer to show the rest of Europe that he wasnt racist, each performance had a conductor who maestro the orchestra. Three artists returned in this years contest, the table below shows the order in which votes were cast during the 1967 contest along with the spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country. Each national broadcaster sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language. Details of the commentators and the station for which they represented are also included in the table below

19.
Eurovision Song Contest 1968
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1968 was the 13th Eurovision Song Contest. The contest was won by the Spanish song La, la, la, performed by Massiel, closely followed by the United Kingdom, with a margin of just one point. Originally Spain entered Joan Manuel Serrat to sing La La La, Serrat was withdrawn and replaced by Massiel, who sang the same song in Spanish. The contest was held at the Royal Albert Hall in London,1968 was the first time that the Eurovision Song Contest was broadcast in colour. Also all of Eastern Europe and Tunisia broadcast the contest, katie Boyle hosted the contest for a third time. In May 2008, a documentary by Spanish film-maker Montse Fernández Villa,1968, the documentary claimed that the contest should in fact have been won by the United Kingdoms entry – Congratulations performed by Cliff Richard – which finished second by one vote. Massiel, the performer of the entry, was outraged by the allegations, and claimed that if there had been fixes, other singers. José María Iñigo, author of the statement in the documentary, personally apologized to Massiel, both Massiel and Iñigo accused television channel La Sexta, broadcaster of the documentary, of manufacturing the scandal. There were no withdrawing, returning, or débutant nations in the 1968 contest, each performance had a conductor who maestro the orchestra. Only one artist returned in this years contest, the winner of the 1962 contest, Isabelle Aubret, returned once more for France. The table below shows the order in which votes were cast during the 1968 contest along with the spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country. Each national broadcaster sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language. Details of the commentators and the station for which they represented are also included in the table below. Several non-participating countries also decided to broadcast the contest on their television stations

20.
Eurovision Song Contest 1969
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1969 was the 14th in the series. Four countries won the contest, the first time ever a tie-break situation had occurred, however, there was no rule at the time to cover such an eventuality, so all four countries were declared joint winners. France became the first country to win the contest four times, the Netherlands win was their third. Spain and the United Kingdom each won for the second time, and it was the first time that any country had a winning ESC entry two years in a row. The venue selected to host the 1969 contest was the Teatro Real, the theatre reopened in 1966 as a concert theatre and the main concert venue of the Spanish National Orchestra and the RTVE Symphony Orchestra. The final featured a metal sculpture created by surrealist Spanish artist. The surrealist Spanish artist Salvador Dalí was responsible for designing the publicity material for the 1969 contest as well as the sculpture which was used on stage. It was the first time that the contest resulted in a tie for first place, since there was at the time no rule to cover such an eventuality, all four countries were declared joint winners. Had the later tie-break rule been in place, the Netherlands would have won, United Kingdom would then have been runner up, having received 5 points from Sweden. On the other hand, with the present tie-break rule been in place, France would have been the overall winner, both countries received votes from 9 countries, but France received 4 points from 2 countries whereas Spain received 3 points as their highest vote. A common urban legend on ESC forums and festivals is that just prior to the show, Laurita Valenzuela, the producers assured her that such a thing would never happen. Austria was absent from the contest, refusing to participate in a contest staged in Franco-ruled Spain, only the BBC has the exclusive right to represent the United Kingdom. Each performance had a conductor who led the orchestra, five artists returned in this years contest. Louis Neefs for Belgium who last represented the nation in 1967, the table below shows the order in which votes were cast during the 1969 contest along with the spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country. Each national broadcaster sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language. Details of the commentators and the station for which they represented are also included in the table below

21.
Eurovision Song Contest 1970
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1970 was the 15th Eurovision Song Contest, held on 21 March 1970 at the RAI Congrescentrum in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The Amsterdam contest is regarded as one of the most significant in Eurovision history for a number of reasons, Ireland won with eighteen-year-old Dana and a song called All Kinds of Everything. The UK came second for the time, six votes behind Ireland. Luxembourg received zero votes for the only time, due to there being four winners in the previous contest, a question was raised as to which nation would host the 1970 Eurovision. With the UK having hosted the 1968 Contest and Spain the 1969 Contest, only France, a toss of a coin resulted in the host country being decided as the Netherlands. The Congrescentrum, venue of the 1970 contest, is a semi-permanent exhibit at the Ferdinand Bolstraat to Amsterdam and this building was replaced in 1961 by the current RAI building on Europes Square. The current congress and event center on Europe Square, was designed by Alexander Bodon, the Dutch producers were forced to pad out the show as only 12 nations decided to make the trip to Amsterdam. The result was a format which has endured almost to the present day, an extended opening sequence set the scene, while every entry was introduced by a short video postcard featuring each of the participating artists, ostensibly in their own nation. However, the postcards for Switzerland, Luxembourg and Monaco were all filmed on location in Paris, interestingly, the long introduction film was followed by what probably is one of the shortest ever introductions by any presenter. Willy Dobbe only welcomed the viewers in English, French and Dutch, on screen captions introduced each entry, with the song titles listed all in lower case and the names of the artist and composers/authors all in capitals. The set design was devised by Roland de Groot, a design was composed of a number of curved horizontal bars. To avoid an incident like in 1969, a tie rule was created and it stated that, if two or more songs gained the same number of votes and were tied for first place, each song would have to be performed again. After which each national jury would have a show of hands of which they thought was the best, if the countries tied again, then they would share first place. Austria, Finland, Norway, Portugal and Sweden boycotted this contest as they were not pleased with the result of 1969, Portugal did however host a National final, being won by Sérgio Borges. Of the participating singers, a number were already established performers, notably, the United Kingdom sent Welsh singer and Apple recording artist Mary Hopkin, while David Alexandre Winter represented Luxembourg. The contest is notable for the appearance of the then unknown Julio Iglesias. In the run-up to the Contest, the United Kingdom were favourites to win, so sure of victory, the UK delegation had organised a winners party to be thrown after the contest. In the end, the two countries in the running were the UK and Ireland, albeit the latter holding the lead throughout the voting

22.
Eurovision Song Contest 1971
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1971 was the sixteenth edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held in Dublin, Ireland on 3 April 1971, monacos win was their first and only victory. The song was performed by a French singer, living in France, sung in French, conducted by a French native, the contest was held at the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin, the capital and most populous city of Ireland. This was the first time that the contest was held in Ireland, for the first time, each participating broadcaster was required to televise all the songs in previews prior to the live final. Reports suggested that Castel had not even had time to buy a suitable dress for the show. The BBC were worried about the audience reaction to the UK song due to the hostilities raging in Northern Ireland. They specifically selected a singer from Northern Ireland, Clodagh Rodgers, however, Rodgers still received death threats from the IRA for representing the UK. Groups of up to six people were allowed to perform for the first time and this was only RTÉs second outside broadcast in colour. The contest was broadcast in Iceland, the USA and Hong Kong several days later, while this meant that no country could score fewer than 34 points, it had one major problem, some jury members tended to award only one or two points. Whether this was done to increase their respective countries chances of winning is not known for sure, however, the system remained in place for the 1972 and 1973 contests. Malta made their début in this years contest, while Austria, Finland, Norway, Portugal and this brought the total number of countries to eighteen. Each performance had a conductor who directed the orchestra, two artists returned to the competition this year, Katja Ebstein represented Germany for the second consecutive year, while Jacques Raymond had previously represented Belgium in 1963. Below is a summary of all perfect 10 scores that were given during the voting, the table below shows the order in which votes were cast during the 1971 contest, along with the spokespeople who were responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country. Each national broadcaster sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language. Details of the commentators and the station for which they represented are also included in the table below. The Eurovision Song Contest, The Official History, John Kennedy OConnor, Carlton Books Ltd, ISBN 1-84442-994-6 Official website

23.
Eurovision Song Contest 1972
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1972 was the 17th annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held in Edinburgh, United Kingdom, although Monaco had won the previous years contest, the principality was unable to meet the demands of hosting the event. Séverine made the trip to the Scottish capital Edinburgh to pass on the Grand Prix to Vicky Leandros, however, she looked thoroughly uninterested in the Monegasque entry when seen by viewers checking her watch before the song was performed. This marked the time that the contest was held in the United Kingdom. However, this is the first time that the UK hosted the Eurovision Song Contest in a venue outside England, the 1972 Eurovision Song Contest was hosted by Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland. Usher Hall, the venue for the 1972 contest, is a hall, situated on Lothian Road, in the west end of Edinburgh. It has hosted concerts and events since its construction in 1914 and can hold approximately 2,900 people in its recently restored auditorium, the Hall is flanked by The Royal Lyceum Theatre on the right and The Traverse Theatre on the left. Historic Scotland has registered the Hall with Category A listed building status, the stage design included a screen to introduce and accompany the on stage competing performances, and to show an interval act and voting sequence that were done at Edinburgh Castle. The interval act was performed at the outside vast Esplanade of the Great Hall of Edinburgh Castle, the jurors were stationed in the safety of the castle, and watched the competing performances at Usher Hall on TV. Each country had two members, one aged between 16 and 25 and one aged between 26 and 55. They each awarded 1 to 5 points for each song, other than the song of their own country and they cast their votes immediately after each song was performed and the votes were then collected and counted. The eventual winner, Luxembourg, remained in a scoring position throughout the voting. 1972 was the first year that had no ties in the voting, every year prior to 1972, at least two countries had received the same score. All countries who participated in the 1971 contest were present this year, with no withdrawals, returns, the Irish entry was in Irish, so far the countrys only entry in that language. Each performance had a conductor who maestro the orchestra, four artists returned to the competition this year. Below is a summary of all perfect 10 scores that were given during the voting, each national broadcaster sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the event in their own native language. Apart from the countries, the contest was transmitted in live for the first time in the continent of Asia, in the countries Japan, Taiwan, Thailand. Brazil and Greece also provided live broadcasting, iceland and Israel broadcast it a few days later

24.
Eurovision Song Contest 1973
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1973 was the 18th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was won by the Luxembourg entry, Tu te reconnaîtras, the voting was a very close one, with Spain finishing only 4 points behind and Cliff Richard of the United Kingdom another 2 points after. The city of Luxembourg, also known as Luxembourg City, is a commune with city status, and it is located at the confluence of the Alzette and Pétrusse Rivers in southern Luxembourg. The city contains the historic Luxembourg Castle, established by the Franks in the Early Middle Ages, the Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg, inaugurated in 1964 as the Théâtre Municipal de la Ville de Luxembourg, became the venue for the 1973 contest. It is the major venue for drama, opera and ballet. The language rule forcing countries to enter songs sung in any of their languages was dropped. After finishing second in the contest, the song went on to become an international hit. The somewhat elliptical lyrics to Portugals entry Tourada provided sufficient cover for a song that was understood as a blistering assault on the countrys decaying dictatorship. Also, the breasts was used during Swedens song entry. However, no action was taken by the EBU, an argument broke out between the singer Maxi and her Irish delegation over how the song should be performed. During rehearsals she repeatedly stopped performing in frustration, when it began to appear possible that Maxi might withdraw from the contest, RTÉ immediately sent over another singer, Tina Reynolds, to take her place just in case. In the end Miss Reynolds wasnt needed as Maxi did perform, Cliff Richard represented the UK with the song Power to All Our Friends. He came 3rd with 123 points, the winner though was Anne-Marie David with Tu te reconnaîtras. In the UK it was released in English under the title Wonderful Dream and this gave rise to one of the best-known Eurovision anecdotes, frequently recounted by the UKs long-serving commentator Terry Wogan. He recalled that the floor manager strongly advised the audience to remain seated while applauding the performances, each country had two jury members, one aged between 16 and 25 and one aged between 26 and 55. They each awarded 1 to 5 points for each song immediately after it was performed, the juries watched the show on TV from the Ville du Louvigny TV Studios of CLT and appeared on screen to confirm their scores. Seventeen nations took part in this years contest, malta was drawn to perform in 6th place between Norway and Monaco, but the Maltese broadcaster withdrew before the deadline to select an entry. The 1973 contest marked the first time that women conducted the ESC orchestra, monica Dominique conducted the Swedish entry and Nurit Hirsh conducted the Israeli entry

25.
Eurovision Song Contest 1974
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1974 was the 19th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held in the resort of Brighton on the south coast of the United Kingdom. The BBC agreed to stage the event after Luxembourg, having won in both 1972 and 1973, declined on the grounds of expense to host the contest for a consecutive year. The winner of the Contest was Sweden with the song Waterloo which was performed by the band ABBA, ABBA are among the few Eurovision winners to achieve international superstar status. Katie Boyle returned to host her fourth Eurovision Song Contest, Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove on the south coast of Great Britain. The venue which hosted the 1974 Contest was the Brighton Dome, a venue that contains the Concert Hall, the Corn Exchange. A two-night preview programme, Auftakt für Brighton, was coordinated by the German national broadcaster ARD broadcast at the end of March and was hosted by the journalist Karin Tietze-Ludwig and it was the first preview-type programme to be broadcast in many European countries simultaneously. The programme was notable in being the European television debut for the winners, ABBA. The United Kingdom was represented in the contest by the Australian pop singer Olivia Newton-John, France had been drawn to sing at No. Since President Pompidous funeral was held the day of the contest, dani was seen by viewers in the audience at the point the French song should have been performed. For the same reason, the French singer Anne-Marie David, who had won the first place for Luxembourg in 1973, in her absence, the Director General of the BBC and President of the EBU, Sir Charles Curran, presented the Grand Prix. Malta had selected Enzo Guzman with the song Paċi Fid Dinja to represent them, malta would return to the competition in 1975. The song was not played on most Italian state TV and radio stations for over a month, portugals entry E depois do adeus was used as the first of the two signals to launch the Carnation Revolution against the Estado Novo regime. The second song to be broadcast, marking the start of military operations of the coup, was Grândola, Vila Morena by Zeca Afonso. Seventeen nations took part in this years contest, greece made their début, while France withdrew during the week of the contest after the sudden death of French President Georges Pompidou. Each performance had a conductor who maestro the orchestra, had France taken part in the contest, its entry would have been conducted by Jean-Claude Petit. Three artists returned to the contest this year, gigliola Cinquetti winner of the 1964 Contest participated again for Italy. Romuald Figuier who also participated in the 1964 Contest for Monaco, norways Bendik Singers also returned after last participating in Eurovision Song Contest 1973

26.
Eurovision Song Contest 1975
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1975 was the 20th edition of the contest hosted by SR and held in Stockholm, Sweden. The arena for the event was the newly built Stockholmsmässan in Älvsjö in southern Stockholm, aBBAs victory in Brighton the previous year gave Sweden the right to host the contest for the first time. The Contest was won by Teach-In, who sang Ding-a-dong in English, the venue for the contest was Stockholmsmässan. The main building is in Älvsjö – a southern suburb of Stockholm Municipality for which the building got its nickname and it was constructed in 1971 and holds 4,000 people. This year a new scoring system was implemented, each country would be represented by a jury of 11 members, at least half of whom had to be under the age of 26. Each jury member had to every song a mark of between 1 and 5 points, but could not vote for their own nations entry. The votes were cast immediately after the song was performed and collected by the straight away. The jury spokesperson then announced the ten scores in the order the songs were presented when called upon by the hostess, the hostess Karin Falck several times confused the new system with questions like How much is seven in France. Unlike today, the points were not given in order, the current procedure of announcing the scores in ascending order, beginning with 1 point, was not established until 1980. This scoring system remained in use until 1996, although the number of jurors varied, in from 1997, some juries were replaced by televotes and from 1998, all countries were encouraged to televote when possible. In the 2009 final and the 2010 semi-finals, the juries were reintroduced to provide 50% of the scores, despite these changes in how the points were decided, the douze points scoring system remained in place from 1975-2015. In 2016 it was altered to each country providing two separate sets of points, however, modelled after the former model, greece withdrew from this contest in response to the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus, in protest of Turkeys participation. Despite this, a record of nineteen countries took part, turkey made their début, while France and Malta returned to the contest. The Portuguese entry Madrugada was a celebration of the Carnation Revolution. Some competitors opted to perform their songs in English for the rehearsals heard by the judges, others, such as Belgium and Germany, opted for a mix of their own language and English. Each performance had a conductor who maestro the orchestra, norways Ellen Nikolaysen was the only participant to return to the contest this year. Ellens previous participations where with the band Bendik Singers in 1973, each national broadcaster also sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language. Details of the commentators and the station for which they represented are also included in the table below

27.
Eurovision Song Contest 1976
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1976 was the 21st edition of the contest hosted by NOS and held in The Hague, Netherlands. The arena for the event was the Nederlands Congrescentrum, teach-Ins victory in Stockholm the previous year gave The Netherlands the right to host the contest for the third time. The Contest was won by Brotherhood of Man, who sang Save Your Kisses for Me in English, the Hague is the seat of government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the capital city of the province of South Holland. It is also the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam, located in the west of the Netherlands, The Hague is in the centre of the Haaglanden conurbation and lies at the southwest corner of the larger Randstad conurbation. The contest took place at the Congresgebouw, the venue was constructed in 1969. The scoring system introduced in the years competition returned in 1976. Each jury gave 12 points to the best song,10 to the second best, then 8 to the third, unlike today, the points were not given in order, but in the order the songs were performed. The current procedure was not established until 1980, Sweden, Malta and Turkey withdrew from this contest reducing the number of participating countries down to eighteen from the previous competitions record of nineteen countries that took part. Austria and Greece returned to the contest, Sweden withdrew from the contest, as the broadcaster Sveriges Radio did not have enough money to host another contest if Sweden won again. A new rule was introduced that in the future each broadcaster participating would have to pay a part of the cost of staging the contest. Malta, having selected Enzo Guzman with the song Sing Your Song, Country Boy to represent them, then withdrew from the contest for undisclosed reasons, Malta would not return to the competition until 1991. The entry from Greece aroused controversy as it was about the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, the previous year Greece had withdrawn from the contest in protest over this matter. This year it was Turkeys turn to withdraw, liechtenstein attempted to submit an entry to the contest, but as they had no broadcasting service of their own, they were not allowed to. Their entry would have been Little Cowboy by Biggi Bachmann, each performance had a conductor who maestro the orchestra. Four artists returned to the contest in 1976, each national broadcaster also sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language

28.
Eurovision Song Contest 1977
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1977 was the 22nd edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest, and was held in London, United Kingdom on 7 May 1977. The contest was won by Marie Myriam, representing France, with the song Loiseau et lenfant and this was Frances fifth victory, a record at the time. It was also Frances second victory on English soil, as well as its most recent victory to date, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its founding by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Wembley Conference Centre, which opened in 1977, was the first purpose-built conference centre in the United Kingdom, the centre was chosen as host venue for the song contest, which was presented by Angela Rippon. The language rule was brought back in this contest, four years after it had dropped in 1973. However Germany and Belgium were allowed to sing in English, because they had chosen the songs they were going to perform before the rule was reintroduced. At one point before the contest Tunisia was going to participate, had Tunisia gone ahead they would have appeared fourth on stage. Yugoslavia also withdrew, and did not return until 1981, the Belgian act Dream Express had created some controversy in the press with reports that the three female members would wear transparent tops, this did not materialise for the actual event. The British conductor Ronnie Hazlehurst used an umbrella and wore a hat during the UK entry. Each performance had a conductor who maestro the orchestra, several artists returned to the 1977 Contest. Beatrix Neundlinger and Günter Grosslercher from the group Schmetterlinge both represented Austria in 1972 as part of the band The Milestones, irelands participant The Swarbriggs returned after their previous appearance back in 1975. Ilanit from Israel returned after previously representing the nation in 1973, michèle Torr, Luxembourgs 1966 entrant participated for Monaco. And finally Fernando Tordo and Paulo de Carvalho returned once more after they previously represented the nation as solo acts back in 1973 and 1974 respectively, ^ Contains some words in English. Each national broadcaster sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language

29.
Eurovision Song Contest 1978
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1978 was the 23rd edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held on 22 April 1978 in Paris, the contest was won by Izhar Cohen & the Alphabeta who represented Israel with the song A-Ba-Ni-Bi. Although A-Ba-Ni-Bi is the title, French television mistakenly captioned on screen the song title as Ah-Bah-Nee-Bee. The presenters were Denise Fabre and Léon Zitrone, and this was the first time more than one presenter hosted an edition of the Contest, twenty countries participated, a record at the time. The winning entry is a song sung in the Hebrew equivalent of Ubbi dubbi. This was Israels first Eurovision win, the win caused problems for several North African and Middle-Eastern nations that were televising the contest, even though they were not participating. Jordanian TV finished the show with a photo of a bunch of daffodils on screen, norway finished last for the fifth time, gaining the first nul points during the current voting system was implemented in 1975. The venue was built by French architect Guillaume Gillet, and was inaugurated in 1974, björn Skifs was unhappy with the rule that every country would have to perform in their native language. He planned to sing in English anyway, but changed his mind at the very last moment and he therefore sang the first few lines in gibberish before finding the words again. This pattern would repeat over the years, in 1979 Greece took part in the Contest with Sokrati in Jerusalem -. In 1980 both countries returned, with Autostop and Petr Oil respectively, despite Turkeys failure to recognize the Greek government in Cyprus, all three countries performed together when Cyprus debuted in 1981 and it continued until 2012. Denmark returned to the contest this year, for the first time since 1966, the Greek entry this year was a song called Charlie Chaplin, in reference to the comedian who died the previous year. In a curious twist, however, regular entrants Peter, Sue and they lost out at third place however. The song from Monaco also made reference to Charlie Chaplin, each performance had a conductor who maestro the orchestra. Several artists returned to the 1978 Contest, ireen Sheer had previously represented Luxembourg in 1974, and finished in equal fourth place. ^ Contains some words in French, ^ Contains some words in English. Each country had a jury who awarded 12,10,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 points for their top ten songs. Each national broadcaster sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language

30.
Eurovision Song Contest 1979
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1979 was the 24th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held on 31 March 1979 in Jerusalem, Israel, the event was staged at the International Convention Center. The presenters were Daniel Peer and Yardena Arazi, the winner was Israel with the song Hallelujah, performed by Gali Atari and Milk and Honey. Therefore, this was Israels consecutive second win, and overall win, in the contest. 19 countries participated, the 20 countries that took part at the previous 1978 Contest, except for Turkey which was going to participate. Yugoslavia, that missed the 1978 Contest, also didnt want to take part nor transmit the 1979 show for political reasons, as well as being broadcast live in the 19 competing countries, the contest was broadcast in Turkey, Romania, Hong Kong and Iceland. As of 2017, it was the last time the contest was held in March, located on a plateau in the Judean Mountains between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea, Jerusalem is one of the oldest cities in the world. In the ancient cuneiform, Jerusalem was called Urusalima, meaning City of Peace and it is considered holy to the three major Abrahamic religions—Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Each country had a jury who awarded 12,10,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 point for their top ten songs. This was the last year in which the points were announced via order of appearance, Israel gained a good lead in the early stages of the voting, but Spain eventually caught up and took a good lead themselves. At the close of the jurys votes, Israel were one point behind Spain. Spain ended up giving Israel 10 points, causing the crowd to erupt into enormous cheers, at one point before the contest Turkey was going to participate. The country would have appeared 11th on stage, represented by Maria Rita Epik and 21, for each nations performance, the orchestra was conducted by the following, Below is a summary of all 12 points in the final

31.
Eurovision Song Contest 1980
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1980 was the 25th Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 19 April 1980 in The Hague. The presenter was Marlous Fluitsma, although each song was introduced by a presenter from the participating nation, in some cases, this was the same person providing the commentary. The contest was won by Johnny Logan, representing Ireland with a song called Whats Another Year, after Spain, the 2nd-place winner of 1979, and reportedly the UK, refused to host, the Netherlands finally agreed to host the show in a small-scale production. As with the recent 1977 and 1978 contests, there were no pre-filmed postcards between the songs, with a guest presenter from each nation introducing the entries, NOS spent just US$725,000 on the project. Morocco joined the Eurovision family for the first time, monaco withdrew, and would not return again. Australian-born Johnny Logan representing Ireland was the winner of this Eurovision with the song and this was Irelands second time winning the competition, having won in 1970 with All Kinds of Everything, which was also held on Dutch soil. They would finish in place again the following year, finally winning it in 1982. Germany would go on to second again in 1985 and 1987. United Kingdom returned to form by coming third, the Hague is the seat of government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the capital city of the province of South Holland. It is also the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam, located in the west of the Netherlands, The Hague is in the centre of the Haaglanden conurbation and lies at the southwest corner of the larger Randstad conurbation. The scoring system implemented in 1975 remained the same, each country had a jury who awarded 12,10,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 point for their top ten songs. However this year for the first time, countries were required to cast their votes in ascending order,1,2,3 etc and this change made for the added excitement of waiting for each country to award their highest 12 points at the end of each voting round. For each nations performance, the orchestra was conducted by the following, Notes a. ^ Although the song was completely in Norwegian, the Netherlands gained a strong lead early on, getting the maximum douze points from three of the first four voting countries. This was not to last, however, as Germany and eventually Ireland overtook them, below is a summary of all 12 points in the final, Each song was introduced by a presenter from the national country. Thelma Mansfield introduced the song in Irish, whereas the song was performed in English

32.
Eurovision Song Contest 1981
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1981 was the 26th event of its kind, and was held on 4 April 1981 at the Simmonscourt Pavilion of the Royal Dublin Society in Dublin. The presenter was Doireann Ní Bhriain, the United Kingdoms Bucks Fizz were the winners of this contest with the song Making Your Mind Up, beating second place Germany by four points. Dublin is the capital and largest city of Ireland, Dublin is in the province of Leinster on Irelands east coast, at the mouth of the River Liffey. Founded as a Viking settlement, the Kingdom of Dublin became Irelands principal city following the Norman invasion, the city expanded rapidly from the 17th century and was briefly the second largest city in the British Empire before the Acts of Union in 1800. Following the partition of Ireland in 1922, Dublin became the capital of the Irish Free State, the contest took place under heavy guard at the 15,000 seat Simmonscourt Pavilion of the RDS, which was normally used for agricultural and horse shows. Over 250 armed soldiers and police were on hand to protect against any likely political demonstrations, having won the year before, Ireland hosted the 1981 contest - the second time they had done so. As in 1971, the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest was produced by the countrys broadcaster RTÉ, the presenter on this occasion was Doireann Ni Bhriain, who was well known in Ireland at the time as a TV presenter and for the current affairs radio show Women Today. She was chosen for her fluency in Irish and English as well as having studied French, the director was Ian McGarry, while Noel Kelehan was the chief conductor for the show. It cost RTÉ over £300,000 to stage, although this included £110,000 from the EBU, from this, the Irish Government expected to make around £2,000,000 from tourism as a result of staging the show. The RDS would go on to host the next Irish Eurovision production in 1988 and this year marked the début of Cyprus in the contest, who finished sixth. Returning to the contest was Israel, who did not compete the previous year, yugoslavia also returned to the competition after a five-year absence. Italy withdrew for the first time from the contest, due to lack of interest, of the performers, many previous contestants returned to the contest this year. Notably, Jean-Claude Pascal for Luxembourg, who had won the contest 20 years earlier, repeated entrants Peter, Sue and Marc returned for the fourth time, after 1971,1976 and 1979. Performing again for Switzerland, they remain the only act to sing in four different languages, other returnees were Marty Brem who had taken part the year before for Austria, Tommy Seebach for Denmark, and Björn Skifs for Sweden. Bucks Fizz member, Cheryl Baker had performed in 1978 with the band Co-Co for the UK, while Sheeba member Maxi had performed as a solo artist in 1973 for Ireland. Andy Hill – the producer of the single - said that had they known, the interval act was traditional Irish band Planxty, who performed the lengthy piece Timedance, which depicted Irish music through the ages. The dancers were from Dublin City Ballet with choreography by Iain Montague and this is seen as a precursor to Riverdance, which became famous after its performance in 1994. The song, which was written by Bill Whelan, went on to be released as a Planxty single, the voting proved to be memorable for its closeness

33.
Eurovision Song Contest 1982
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1982 was the 27th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held on 24 April 1982 in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, the German entrant, Nicole, was winner with the song Ein bißchen Frieden. Germany received 1.61 times as many points as runner-up Israel, which was a record under the current scoring system until 2009 and this was the first time that Germany won the contest. They have competed in the every year since the contests inception. The opening of the contest showed a map of Europe, with the translation Where is Harrogate, popping up on-screen from the languages of the various countries. The question was always in the language in which the countrys song was performed. The Irish entry was sung in English, but the translation of the question in the map was in Irish, then the map zoomed into Harrogates location in Yorkshire, followed by an introduction video spotlighting the town. Greece was due to participate in the contest with the song Sarantapente Kopelies performed by Themis Adamantidis, although drawn to perform in second place, ERT withdrew the entry a few weeks before the contest. Antenne 2 became the new broadcaster for Eurovision after public outcry, the tradition of previous years winners handing over the prize to current winners was not followed by Bucks Fizz, winners in 1981. Irish band Chips lost out in their national finals, which would, had they been successful, have led to the situation of two bands in the same Eurovision with the same name. Harrogate is a spa town in North Yorkshire, England, historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the town is a tourist destination and its visitor attractions include its spa waters and RHS Harlow Carr gardens. Nearby is the Yorkshire Dales national park and the Nidderdale AONB, Harrogate grew out of two smaller settlements, High Harrogate and Low Harrogate, in the 17th century. The town became known as The English Spa in the Georgian Era, in the 17th and 18th centuries its chalybeate waters were a popular health treatment, and the influx of wealthy but sickly visitors contributed significantly to the wealth of the town. The Harrogate International Centre was chosen as the host venue for the contest, the grand convention and exhibition centre opened short time prior to the contest, and was the first big event held in the main 2000-seat auditorium. There were 18 competitors in this years final, No year since has had this few competitors in the final of the competition. Each country had a jury who awarded 12,10,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 point for their top ten songs, Germany had the advantage of performing last. After coming second in 1980 and second in Dublin the year previously, Ralph Siegel, the winner, Nicole, beat the nearest competition by 61 points and over 13 million West Germans watched her victory on television. Germany was the leader for nearly the entire voting process

34.
Eurovision Song Contest 1983
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1983 was the 28th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held in Munich, then West Germany, on 23 April 1983, corinne Hermes was the winner of this Eurovision with the song, Si la vie est cadeau. This was Luxembourgs fifth victory in the contest which equalled the record set by France in 1977 and it was also the second year in a row where the winning entry was performed last on the night and the second year in a row in which Israel won 2nd place. The 1983 contest was the first to be televised in Australia, via Channel 0/28 in Sydney and Melbourne. The contest went to become a popular show in Australia, leading to an intended one-off participation in the 60th anniversary contest in 2015. Ireland was not in the contest because RTÉ was in action at that time. At one point, murmurs and boos arose from the crowd at the Greek jurys decision to give host country Germany only one point and this was the only occasion in which Greece didnt award any point to Cyprus. Due to Charells choice to announce points in three languages instead of two, the voting went on for nearly an hour, stretching the Eurovision contest past three hours for the first time ever. The language problems also occurred during the contest introductions, as Charell introduced Norwegian conductor Sigurd Jansen as. Johannes. Skorgan, having been forced to make up a name on the spot after forgetting the conductors name. Ofra Haza from Israel, who took the place, had an enduring success with her song Hi which became a hit in Europe. This year also marked the first performance of Swedens Carola Häggkvist and her song, Främling, became very popular in Sweden and in various other European countries. In the Netherlands, the reached the top five, coupled with a Dutch-language version which was performed by Carola herself. The 4th placed Džuli, also became a hit in Europe, singer Daniel released an English-language version as Julie. This years nul points were shared by Spain and Turkey, additionally, she sang her song barefoot. Some olés were heard from the present audience when she ended her performance, turkeys entry, Opera, performed by Çetin Alp & the Short Waves, could on the other hand be said to fit in well with the spirit of Eurovision of that time. The interval show was a dance set to a medley of German songs which had become internationally famous. The host, Marlene Charell, was the lead dancer, host conductor in bold Each country had a jury who awarded 12,10,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 point for their top ten songs. Below is a summary of all 12 points in the final, the following is a list of spokespersons who announced the votes for their respective country

35.
Eurovision Song Contest 1984
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1984, the 29th event of its kind, was held on 5 May 1984 in Luxembourg. The presenter, Désirée Nosbusch, only 19 years old at the time, hosted the show in a lax manner, which was quite unusual for the show at the time. She manifested her fluency in four languages by switching between a strong transatlantic English, French, German and Luxembourgish in the course of talking, swedens the Herreys were the winners of this contest with the song, Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley. This was the Nordic countrys second win, and the first song performed in Swedish, the previous Swedish winner, ABBA, ten years ago had performed their song Waterloo in English. Israel withdrew from the contest due to Yom Hazikaron being commemorated on the same date, iceland was going to participate but withdrew due to lack of financial support. 1984 is also a notable for the audible booing that could be heard from the audience and it was said that the booing was due to English football hooligans having rioted in Luxembourg in November 1983 after being knocked out of the UEFA European Football Championship. However, the song managed a pretty good showing, reaching seventh place. The city of Luxembourg, also known as Luxembourg City, is a commune with city status, and it is located at the confluence of the Alzette and Pétrusse Rivers in southern Luxembourg. The city contains the historic Luxembourg Castle, established by the Franks in the Early Middle Ages, the Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg, inaugurated in 1964 as the Théâtre Municipal de la Ville de Luxembourg, became the venue for the 1984 contest. It is the major venue for drama, opera and ballet. It also hosted the 1973 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, host conductor in bold Notes 1. ^ Contains some words in English. 2. ^ Contains some words in Italian,3. ^ Contains some words in German. Before the contest, Sweden was not expected to win or even achieve a high placing, in the run-up to the Contest, bookmakers Ladbrokes had the lowest odds on songs from Ireland, Italy, and the United Kingdom. Sweden was considered a dark horse entry with high odds, each country had a jury that awarded one to eight,10 and 12 points for their top ten songs. At the close of the jurys votes, there was only a difference of six points between Sweden and Ireland, at 141 and 135 respectively. However, Yugoslavia was the country who had not given any points to Ireland, and Portugal. Portugals voting also cost Denmark, who had been holding at a third position, even leading the scoreboard for a short time, in that place. Portugal at the time had only given Denmark one point making Denmarks total 101 points

36.
Eurovision Song Contest 1985
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1985 was the 30th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held on 4 May 1985 in Gothenburg, Sweden, the presenter was entertainer Lill Lindfors, whose jokey dress rip after the interval act was said to have not amused the wife of EBU scrutineer Frank Naef. Were the winners with the song La det swinge, win for Norway was the countrys first. What do you think we are, after an energetic reprise, the two women embraced to a standing ovation from the audience. During the voting, it was not immediately evident that Norway would win the Contest, Germany took a commanding lead in the first half, with Norway fifth place behind Germany, Sweden, Italy and the United Kingdom around the end of the first half of voting. Finally, with five juries left, Germany, Sweden and Norway were tightly wrapped around the positions with 87,86. At that point, Sweden briefly took the lead away from Germany, Sweden was the fourth-to-last jury, conceding their brief lead by awarding Germany eight points and Norway the maximum twelve. With only three left to vote, Norway kept the lead, in one of the shortest winning stretches during voting in the contests history. The Netherlands and Yugoslavia did not participate in this Contest, due to the national Remembrance of the Dead in the Netherlands, despite this Yugoslavia did choose its song, Pokora, a duet sung by Zorica Kondža and Josip Genda. 1985 was also the year when no less than thirteen previous Eurovision artists made a comeback and this also applied to the winners, Bobbysocks. Who had attended once before as soloists, Hanne Krogh performed for Norway in 1971, while Elisabeth Andreassen for Sweden in 1982 in a duet, Chips, Kikki herself also returned this year for host country Sweden, and was thus competing against Elisabeth Andreassen and Bobbysocks. Lys Assia, the winner of the first ever Eurovision Song Contest in 1956, was the guest of honour of this edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. She was introduced by the presenter Lill Lindfors, the camera zoomed close to Lys, who rose to greet the audience, while the orchestra played the song Refrain, her winning song. Host conductor in bold Each country had a jury who awarded 12,10,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 point for their top ten songs. The voting itself was exciting, the German favourites looked to be cruising to an early victory, however both Sweden and Norway did their best to keep up and by the time the UK jury delivered their votes, Germany had seen its lead smashed. Lill Lindfors had a malfunction as she proceeded to the stage for the voting procedure. As she walked on stage, the skirt of her dress came away, leaving her in just her underwear and the top half of her dress. After a few seconds of pretending to be shocked, Lindfors unfastened the flaps of her dress across her shoulders, to reveal a white gown

37.
Eurovision Song Contest 1986
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1986 was the 31st Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 3 May 1986 in Grieghallen in Bergen, Norway. It was the first occasion on which Norway played host to the contest, the presenter was Åse Kleveland, a well-known folk guitarist who was President of the Norwegian Association of Musicians. The 1986 contest was a first for Eurovision in that royalty were among the guests—Crown Prince Harald, Crown Princess Sonja, Princess Märtha Louise, Sandra Kim was the winner of this Eurovision with the song Jaime la vie, representing Belgium. Aged 13, Kim was the youngest ever Eurovision winner, current rules require Eurovision Song Contest participants to be at least 16, so unless the rule is changed, Kims record will never be broken. In the lyrics of her song, Kim claimed to be 15 years of age, switzerland, who finished second, appealed for her to be disqualified, but this was to no avail. By 1985, Norway had received the distinction of being the nul points country. By the autumn of 1985, NRK had decided to hold the years contest at the Grieghallen in Bergen, turning down other bids from capital Oslo. In addition, NRK also had a special diamond-encrusted dress made for presenter Åse Kleveland for her opening number, the prized dress, which weighed upwards of 15 pounds, is still available for viewing at NRKs costuming department at Marienlyst in Oslo. Kleveland sang the multilingual Welcome to Music as the act, incorporating English and French primarily. BBC commentator Terry Wogan, at the close of Klevelands number, dryly remarked, Katie Boyle never sang, did she. So, imagine our joy when last year we won, and the pleasure we feel today, being able to welcome 700 million viewers to the top of Europe, to Norway. One of the interval acts presented featured Norwegian musicians Sissel Kyrkjebø and Steinar Ofsdal, accompanied by Norwegian national broadcasting orchestra, Kringkastingsorkesteret. They opened with the song of the city of Bergen, Udsikter fra Ulriken. Ofsdal played a range of traditional Norwegian folk instruments such as accordion, recorder, the presentation launched Kyrkjebø into a career as an internationally recognized artist. Iceland competed for the first time, as the national broadcaster RÚV finally cemented their satellite television connections with the rest of Europe, greece withdrew, having been drawn eighteenth in order of presentation. The reason behind the withdrawal, was that the Eurovision contest coincided with Holy Saturday and their entry would have been Wagon-lit performed by Polina. The Italian broadcaster, RAI, simply decided not to send any delegation to Bergen, host conductor in bold The winning song, Belgiums Jaime la vie, received points from every jury. Belgium was the winner in the voting from the results of the jury out of twenty

38.
Eurovision Song Contest 1987
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1987 was the 32nd Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 9 May 1987 in Brussels, Belgium after Sandra Kims win the previous year. Johnny Logan was the winner for Ireland with the song Hold Me Now and that made him the first performer to win the contest twice, as he had won also in 1980. The 1987 Eurovision was the biggest contest at that time, with 22 countries taking part, only Malta, Monaco and Morocco failed to compete out of all the countries which had entered the contest in the past. Due to the number of countries, and the time it took for the contest to be held and this became problematic over the next few years as new and returning nations indicated an interest in participating, but could not be accommodated. Controversy erupted in Israel after their song was selected, Shir Habatlanim by the Lazy Bums, the comedic performance was criticised by the countrys culture minister, who threatened to resign should the duo proceed to Brussels. They went on to perform for Israel, placing eighth, however the culture ministers threat was left unfulfilled, host conductor in bold Notes 1. ^ Contains some phrases in English

39.
Eurovision Song Contest 1988
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1988 was the 33rd edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. The contest took place on 30 April 1988 in Dublin, Ireland, the presenters were Pat Kenny and Michelle Rocca. The host broadcaster was Radio Telefís Éireann which revamped the production style compared to its earlier editions. The winner was Switzerland with the song Ne partez pas sans moi, performed by future international superstar Celine Dion, Switzerland beat the United Kingdom by just a point in the last vote to win the title. The Cypriot song had been drawn to be performed 2nd in the running order, the stage itself, conceived by Paula Farrell under chief production designer Michael Grogan, was also the largest and most elaborate ever constructed for the Eurovision Song Contest. The Postcards featured the participants doing things in Ireland from culture, to tradition, lowney was also the director of the shows interval act, introduced after the competing songs and before the votes announcement. Each country had a jury who awarded 12,10,8,7,6,5,4,3,2 and 1 point for its top ten songs and this edition features one of the closest and fickle-ending votes in the history of the contest. With three countries left to vote, the UK was well in the lead with 133 points against Switzerlands 118, with the conclusion of voting from the penultimate jury, the UK was holding a five-point lead over Switzerland. Switzerland was the first to be named with six points, edging it into a one-point lead over the UK, after earlier strong votes from most countries to the UK, it seemed highly likely that the UK would be given one of the higher remaining set of points. Twenty-one countries took part, after a plan of twenty-two. This was classed as a breach of the Cypriot rules of selecting their entry at this time as well as an infringement of the Eurovision Song Contest rules, the contest helped launch an international career for two artists, the winner for Switzerland Celine Dion and Luxembourg’s representative Lara Fabian. Belgian-Canadian Lara Fabian started a career after the contest with becoming established in various countries worldwide. The UK entry was written and composed by Julie Forsyth, the daughter of the entertainer Bruce Forsyth who was present, when interviewed afterwards he was particularly annoyed at the Dutch jury not having given a vote to the UK, as they had done some work there

40.
Eurovision Song Contest 1989
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1989 was the 34th annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held on 6 May 1989 in Lausanne, Switzerland, the program was presented by Lolita Morena and Jacques Deschenaux. Riva, representing Yugoslavia, won with the song Rock Me and this was the only victory for Yugoslavia as a unified state. The United Kingdoms Ray Caruana, lead singer with Live Report was outspoken about coming second to what he considered a less worthy song. They had been defeated by 7 points, two of the performers, Nathalie Pâque and Gili Natanael were respectively 11 and 12 years old at their time of competing. Due to bad publicity surrounding their participation, the European Broadcasting Union introduced the rule stating no performer is allowed to take part before the year of their 16th birthday. The previous years winner, Celine Dion, opened the show with a performance of her winning song. The song went on to become a top ten hit in the US a year later - effectively launching her into international success. Each country had a jury who awarded 12,10,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 point for their top ten songs

41.
Eurovision Song Contest 1990
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1990 was the 35th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held in Zagreb, Yugoslavia on 5 May 1990, the presenters were Helga Vlahović Brnobić and Oliver Mlakar. Toto Cutugno was the winner of this contest with the song Insieme,1992 and this was the second victory for Italy, the first one having been Non ho letà, performed by Gigliola Cinquetti in 1964. However, the song was an even more sweeping evocation of European unity, in anticipation of the completion of the European single market. A national final was held in Malta, which was won by Maryrose Mallia with Our Little World of Yesterday, there was a slightly uncomfortable beginning to the rehearsal week when, offended by press comments concerning their ages, the two presenters quit the show. They were briefly replaced by Rene Medvešek and Dubravka Marković, who were much younger, the Eurovision Song Contest 1990 was the first to implement an age rule. The European Broadcasting Union were forced to bring in a rule after criticism arose over the ages of two performers at 1989 contest, being just 11 and 12 years old. From 1990, no artist under the age of 16 on the day of the contest could perform on stage. This rule meant that the record for the youngest ever winner at Eurovision could never be broken, as Sandra Kim, who won for Belgium at the 1986 competition, was just 13 years old. A notorious mishap occurred at the start of the first song and they walked off the stage in barely concealed annoyance and the audience was left in confusion for a moment, but the song was then restarted without any further problems. The 1990 contest was the first to feature a mascot, Eurocat. Notes 1. ^ Contains some phrases in English, French and Serbo-Croatian

42.
Eurovision Song Contest 1991
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1991 was the 36th Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 4 May 1991 in Rome. Due to the Gulf War and mounting tensions in Yugoslavia, RAI decided to move the contest from Sanremo to Rome and this was the last event in which the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia participated. The 1992 contest saw the participation of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and it was also the first time that Germany was represented in their reunited form since the East Germany joined West Germany by the German reunification. Carola was the winner of this Contest with the song Fångad av en stormvind and this was the third victory for Sweden, the last one being in 1984. There was a tie between Carola and Frances Amina, as both had received 146 points and this necessitated a count-back, a tie-breaking measure introduced after the infamous four-way tie in 1969s Contest. Both Sweden and France had received four lots of 12 points and this was the closest France has ever come to winning the ESC since 1977. Had todays tie-break rule been in place, France would have won in 1969 and 1991, the presenters were Gigliola Cinquetti and Toto Cutugno, Italian winners of the ESC to date, which opened the contest singing Insieme,1992 and Non ho letà. Cutugno had some difficulty with the pronunciation of the titles and names of the artists. Despite this, in Italy almost seven million people watched the show, in addition to tallying the vote numbers in English and French, Cinquetti and Cutugno gave each of the jury allotments in Italian as well. Nearly all of the commentary during the voting was given in Italian, at the time, Carlson had appeared numerous times on Italian TV and this was seen as one of her largest audiences. Each country had a jury who awarded 12,10,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 point for their top ten songs. During the final vote none of the top three contenders - Sweden, Israel and France - had received any points up until the last 12-point vote. This vote went to France and for the first time in years, there was a tie for first place. However, since the four-way tie of 1969, the rules had been altered to ensure a single outright winner, the first step in the procedure was to check the number of 12-point votes awarded to each country. Sweden and France were still tied, but when counting the number of 10-point votes, Sweden had more and was finally declared the winner. If the tie occurred under modern tie-breaking rules, France would have won because it had voted for by more countries than Sweden. Below is a summary of all 12 point in the final, The singers were asked to sing a known Italian song which would then be used as a short clip for the postcard

43.
Eurovision Song Contest 1992
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1992 was the 37th Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 9 May 1992 in Malmö, Sweden. The presenters were Lydia Cappolicchio and Harald Treutiger, Linda Martin, representing Ireland, was the winner of this Eurovision with the song Why Me. The song was written by Johnny Logan, who had won the 1980 contest as singer and the 1987 contest as singer/songwriter. The contest took place at the ice arena of Malmö where the stage set was in the shape of a Viking ships bow with a dragon in the centre. The opening sequence included women dressed in the Swedish colours of yellow and blue, the filmic postcard tradition was continued with clips based on each country. Last years winner, Carola, appeared on stage in a dress with sheer sleeves. However, the Irish sent Linda Martin, who had the past experience of coming in 2nd place in the 1984 contest, but also paired up again with Johnny Logan. In the end, Ireland won the contest with a 16-point lead over the United Kingdom, malta with Little Child, performed by Mary Spiteri, also scored very well coming in 3rd place with 123 points. This was the first time that the three highest-placed songs had all been in English, Sweden, the host country, finished 2nd last. Switzerland had to replace its original choice of entry, Soleil, soleil which was to have performed by Géraldine Olivier. The song did not comply with some of the rules of the selection contest and so, despite having won. Each country had a jury who awarded 12,10,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 point for their top ten songs

44.
Eurovision Song Contest 1993
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1993 was the 38th Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 15 May 1993 in Millstreet, County Cork, Ireland. Niamh Kavanagh was the winner of this Eurovision for Ireland with the song and this was Irelands fifth victory, and equalled the tally of five Eurovision victories achieved by France in 1977 and Luxembourg in 1983. However, the venue, a large indoor well- equipped equestrian centre was deemed more suitable as the location by RTÉ. With huge support from local and national authorities, plus several businesses in the region and it was also the largest outside broadcast ever attempted by state broadcaster RTÉ and was deemed a technical triumph for all involved. The stage was created by Alan Farquharson, who was also chief production designer two years later in Dublin, BBC newsreader Nicholas Witchell caused controversy by remarking on the air, shortly before the contest, that it would be held in a cowshed in Ireland. The top two countries of this contest were the same as the top two countries in the years contest, being Ireland and the United Kingdom. This was, however, merely a measure that was plainly not a sustainable solution for future years. After some extremely tight voting, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia edged through, each country had a jury who awarded 12,10,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 point for their top ten songs. The voting required a jury to deliberate in the midst of the war in Bosnia. Warm applause rang round the hall as a voice on a phone line was heard to deliver the familiar greeting, Hello Millstreet. By the final few juries it became clear that either Ireland or the United Kingdom were going to win, after the penultimate jury had voted, it looked to be a lost cause for second-placed Sonia of the UK as she was eleven points behind Niamh Kavanagh. Ostensibly due to technical difficulties, the final jury to announce their results was the Maltese jury. However, the name of neither country came up, instead it was Ireland that were awarded the final points of the evening, finishing with what looked in retrospect a comfortable twenty-three-point victory. Interestingly, given the way the votes were cast, having Maltas vote announced last was the way for the contest for victory to go down to the final jury. 1993 was the last year that the points were announced by telephone

45.
Eurovision Song Contest 1994
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1994 was the 39th Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 30 April 1994 in the Point Theatre in Dublin, Ireland. As of 2017, it was the last time the contest was held in April, the presenters were Cynthia Ní Mhurchú and Gerry Ryan. The pair hosted the evening in French, English and Irish, once again Ireland won the contest for the third time in a row, when Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan were the winners with a song written by Brendan Graham, Rock N Roll Kids. This was a sixth victory for Ireland, giving it the outright record number of victories at the Eurovision Song Contest. It was also the first time — and to date the only time — that the contest had been won by the country in three consecutive years. The contest opened with a film of stars floating in water, fireworks and caricatures dancing around, drinking coffee. The cameras then went live to the venue itself, where dressed in white and wearing caricatured heads of well-known Irish figures. The presenters entered the stage spectacularly from a bridge which descended from the roof of the theatre and this year’s video postcards had a literary theme, showing contestants reading, fishing and doing other activities around Ireland. The floor was painted with a dark blue paint to give a watery effect. Because Italy and Luxembourg withdrew voluntarily, the bottom 5 of the 1993 Contest were relegated and this meant that Belgium, Denmark, Israel, Slovenia and Turkey did not participate this year opening spaces for the new countries. This contest also saw Luxembourg withdraw from Eurovision indefinitely, Poland took part for the first time and caused a scandal when Edyta Górniak broke the rules by singing her song in English during the dress rehearsal. Only six countries demanded that Poland should be disqualified, though the rules required 13 countries to complain before Poland could be removed from the competition. The proposed removal did not occur and Poland went on to come 2nd in the contest, for the first time in Eurovision history, voting was done via satellite instead of by telephone, and as a result, viewers could see the spokespersons onscreen. When the voting started, Hungary took the lead from the first six juries and was ahead of all the other countries. However, Ireland powered their way through the board ending up the winners with a 60-point lead over second-placed Poland. The interval act was the first ever performance of the Irish dancing spectacular Riverdance, featuring Michael Flatley, ^ Contains some words in English. Each country had a jury who awarded 12,10,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 point for their top ten songs. With advances in technology, this was the first contest in which the spokesperson for each national jury appeared on-screen, live from their own countries

46.
Eurovision Song Contest 1995
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1995 was the 40th Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 13 May 1995 in the Point Theatre in Dublin, Ireland. This years competition was the last with one host until 18 years later in 2013 in Malmö. This contest broke the chain of victories that Ireland enjoyed in 1992,1993 and this was Irelands 3rd year in succession to host the contest - and to mark the 40th show, it was opened with a 4-minute retrospective showing images from the contests history. The Norwegian group Secret Garden was the winner of this contest with the instrumental song. Incidentally, Secret Gardens violinist was Fionnuala Sherry, who is Irish and it was his birthday that night, but according to host Kennedy, He wouldnt say which one. Nonetheless, the audience sang Happy Birthday for him, assisted by the orchestra, after winning the 1994 contest, RTÉ were worried about whether they could afford to host a third consecutive contest in 1995. The BBC had offered to take on the responsibility of hosting the contest, in the end RTÉ decided to stage the contest on its own. However they did ask the EBU that, should Ireland win once more, the favourite to win the contest, according to bookmakers, was Sweden with the pop-ballad Se på mig. Other countries in contention for the win were Croatia, Denmark, Israel, Spain, the winning song was something new at Eurovision in that it contained only 24 words accompanied by long violin solos. The United Kingdom contributed a modern rap number, while the previous year’s runner-up, Poland, after the voting was completed, Norway was the winner with 148 points, followed by Spains Vuelve conmigo with 119 points, and Sweden gaining 100 points. The stage was designed by Alan Farquharson who also designed the set of the 1993 contest that took place in Millstreet, the interval act consisted of several well known Irish performers including Clannad, Brian Kennedy and was composed by leading musician Michael OSuilleabhan. The EBU decreased the number of back to 23 to make sure the show wouldnt last longer than 3 hours. 5 of the 6 countries that were relegated the year came back to the contest, Luxembourg decided to stop participating completely and Italy withdrew voluntarily. This rumour did, however inspire a popular episode of Father Ted, in any event, RTÉ ended up hosting the contest once again in 1997. Each country had a jury that awarded 12,10,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 point for their top ten songs. Below is a summary of all 12 points in the final, FR Yugoslavia After the breakup of Yugoslavia, third channel of Radio Television of Serbia broadcast the show, although Yugoslavia did not participate

47.
Eurovision Song Contest 1996
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1996 was the 41st Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 18 May 1996 in Oslo Spektrum in Oslo, Norway. The presenters were Ingvild Bryn and Morten Harket, Harket, lead singer of a-ha, opened the show with a performance of his single Heavens Not for Saints. Twenty-three countries participated in the contest, with Eimear Quinn of Ireland crowned the winner after the voting, with the song. The song was written by Brendan Graham, who composed the 1994 winner Rock n Roll Kids. It was also a seventh win for Ireland and the most recent win of Ireland. Germany, Israel, Denmark, Hungary, Russia, Macedonia, Macedonia eventually went on to make their debut in 1998. The 1996 contest remains the only Eurovision without a German entry and this year, they reverted to the pre-qualifying round that had been used for the 1993, but this time with just one country exempt from the process - the host Norway. The audio-only pre-qualification round, which was never televised, was used by the EBU in order to shortlist the number of participating nations that would compete in the televised final. With exception to the hosts Norway, audio entries from twenty-nine countries were played to national juries, Germany, Israel, Denmark, Hungary, Russia, Macedonia, and Romania all failed to qualify. As a result, Macedonias submission was never classified as an entry by the EBU. As a leading contributor to the contest, Germany were particularly aggrieved that their entry. It was the year in the history of the ESC in which Germany did not participate in the final. But of course the only good luck wish that was rewarded in the end was that of Irish Taoiseach John Bruton. Secondly, the section was conducted using blue screen virtual reality technology provided by Silicon Graphics. The host Ingvild Bryn introduced the viewers to the room, upon which a 3D scoreboard, views of the green room. The only physical aspects were Ingvild herself and two podiums, for the first time in the Eurovision history, during the voting a spokesperson came to stage down next to Ingvild, the Norwegian one, Ragnhild Sælthun Fjørtoft. Despite a submitted entry from Macedonia, it was never classified as a debut entry. Shaded countries were eliminated from the competition Each country had a jury that awarded 12,10,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 point for their top ten songs

Eurovision Song Contest
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The competition was based upon the existing Sanremo Music Festival held in Italy since 1951. The contest has been broadcast every year for sixty years, since its inauguration in 1956 and it is also one of the most watched non-sporting events in the world, with audience figures having been quoted in recent years as anything between 100 million and 6

History of the Eurovision Song Contest
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The history of the Eurovision Song Contest began with an idea of Sergio Pugliese, of the Italian television RAI, and then approved by Marcel Bezençon of the European Broadcasting Union. The contest was based on the Italian Sanremo Music Festival and was designed to test the limits of television broadcast technology. The first contest took place on

List of host cities of the Eurovision Song Contest
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This page is a list of cities and venues that have hosted the Eurovision Song Contest, one or more times. Future venues are shown in italics, since 1958, the host city has customarily been in the winner country of the previous year. There have been exceptions, however, when certain issues have prevented the winner to host the years contest. The hos

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BBC Television Centre in London hosted the 1963 Contest.

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Host cities of Eurovision Song Contest in Europe

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The Scandinavium in Gothenburg: venue for the 1985 Contest.

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The film studios at Cinecittà in Rome played host to the 1991 Contest.

List of Eurovision Song Contest presenters
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This list includes those who have acted as presenters of the Eurovision Song Contest, since the competitions inception in 1956. From 1988, it has been the norm to have two presenters for the contest, all contests before 1978 have had one presenter, and only a few after 1988 have had only one presenter. The 1999 contest was the first to consist of t

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1979 hostess: Yardena Arazi.

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1994 host: Gerry Ryan, pictured in March 2010, one month before his death.

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1997 host: Ronan Keating.

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2006 hostess: Maria Menounos.

Voting at the Eurovision Song Contest
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The winner of the Eurovision Song Contest is selected by a positional voting system. Each country awards two sets of 12,10, 8–1 points to their 10 favourite songs, one from their professional jury, the current system has been in place since 2016. In 2003, Eircoms telephone polling system malfunction, irish broadcaster RTÉ did not receive the pollin

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"The Pyrenean Axis" (Andorra and Spain)

List of Eurovision Song Contest winners
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Sixty-four songs have won the Eurovision Song Contest, an annual competition organised by member countries of the European Broadcasting Union. The contest, which has been broadcast every year since its debut in 1956, is one of the television programmes in the world. The contests winner has been determined using numerous voting techniques throughout

Eurovision Song Contest 1956
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1956 was the debut edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, held at the Teatro Kursaal in Lugano, Switzerland on Thursday 24 May. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union, the music competition was inspired by the Italian Sanremo Music Festival. Lohengrin Filipello hosted the first contest which lasted approximately 1

Eurovision Song Contest 1957
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1957 was the second edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held on Sunday 3 March 1957 in Frankfurt-am-Main, West Germany and it was won by the Netherlands with Net als toen, performed by Corry Brokken. Like the first 1956 edition, this one was mainly a radio programme. In fact, not only were the official

Eurovision Song Contest 1958
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1958 was the third Eurovision Song Contest. The event was held on Wednesday 12 March 1958 at AVRO Studios, the winner was France with the song Dors, mon amour, performed by André Claveau, written by Pierre Delanoë and composed by Hubert Giraud. As in 1956, it is the only contest that has not featured a song in the Englis

Eurovision Song Contest 1959
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1959 was the fourth edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held on Wednesday 11 March 1959 in Cannes, France, the contest was won by the Netherlands with the song Een beetje, performed by Teddy Scholten. This was their second and the first time a country had won the contest twice, willy van Hemert was also

Eurovision Song Contest 1960
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1960 was the fifth edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It was held on Tuesday 29 March 1960 in London, although the Netherlands had won the contest in 1959, the Netherlands Television Foundation declined to host another contest so soon after staging the event in 1958. The honour of hosting the contest therefore passe

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Royal Festival Hall, London. Host venue of the 1960 Eurovision Song Contest.

Eurovision Song Contest 1961
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1961 was the sixth Eurovision Song Contest. It was held on 18 March 1961 and was the first to place on a Saturday night. It was hosted in the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès located in Cannes, France, Luxembourg won for its first time with the song Nous les amoureux performed in French by Jean-Claude Pascal. As the c

Eurovision Song Contest 1962
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1962 was the seventh edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest, held on Sunday 18 March 1962 at the Villa Louvigny in Luxembourg. The contest was won for a time by France with the song Un premier amour. This marked the first time a country had won three contests, austria, Belgium, Netherlands, and Spain all scored nu

Eurovision Song Contest 1963
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1963 was the eighth annual Eurovision Song Contest. The contest was held in London, United Kingdom, after the British broadcaster BBC stepped in to organise the event, france had won the 1962 edition with the right to host this following one but were unable to, due to financial shortcomings. The contest was won by Denmar

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BBC Television Centre, London. Host venue of the 1963 Eurovision Song Contest.

Eurovision Song Contest 1964
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1964 was the ninth edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, after the victory in the 1963 edition. Italy won the contest for the first time scoring 49 points with the song Non ho letà, the host venue for the contest was Tivolis Koncertsal in Denmarks capital city C

Eurovision Song Contest 1965
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1965 was the tenth edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held in Naples, Italy, following the Italian victory at the previous 1964 edition. Luxembourg won, for the time in the history of the contest, with the song Poupée de cire, poupée de son, performed by France Gall. Belgium, Finland, Germany, and Spai

Eurovision Song Contest 1966
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1966 was the 11th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held on 5 March 1966 in Luxembourg, Luxembourg, the host venue was Grand Auditorium de RTL in Villa Louvigny. The winner was Austria with the song Merci, Chérie performed and composed by Udo Jürgens and this would remain Austrias only win in the cont

Eurovision Song Contest 1967
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1967 was the 12th edition of Eurovision Song Contest. It took place on 8 April 1967 in Vienna, Austria following Udo Jürgens win at the 1966 contest. The presenter became confused whilst the voting was taking place, and declared the United Kingdoms entry to be the winner before the last country, shaw intensely disliked t

Eurovision Song Contest 1968
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1968 was the 13th Eurovision Song Contest. The contest was won by the Spanish song La, la, la, performed by Massiel, closely followed by the United Kingdom, with a margin of just one point. Originally Spain entered Joan Manuel Serrat to sing La La La, Serrat was withdrawn and replaced by Massiel, who sang the same song i

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Royal Albert Hall, London. Host venue of the 1968 Eurovision Song Contest.

Eurovision Song Contest 1969
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1969 was the 14th in the series. Four countries won the contest, the first time ever a tie-break situation had occurred, however, there was no rule at the time to cover such an eventuality, so all four countries were declared joint winners. France became the first country to win the contest four times, the Netherlands wi

Eurovision Song Contest 1970
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1970 was the 15th Eurovision Song Contest, held on 21 March 1970 at the RAI Congrescentrum in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The Amsterdam contest is regarded as one of the most significant in Eurovision history for a number of reasons, Ireland won with eighteen-year-old Dana and a song called All Kinds of Everything. The UK ca

Eurovision Song Contest 1971
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1971 was the sixteenth edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held in Dublin, Ireland on 3 April 1971, monacos win was their first and only victory. The song was performed by a French singer, living in France, sung in French, conducted by a French native, the contest was held at the Gaiety Theatre in Dubli

Eurovision Song Contest 1972
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1972 was the 17th annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held in Edinburgh, United Kingdom, although Monaco had won the previous years contest, the principality was unable to meet the demands of hosting the event. Séverine made the trip to the Scottish capital Edinburgh to pass on the Grand Prix to Vicky Leandros, howeve

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Usher Hall, Edinburgh - venue of the 1972 Eurovision Song Contest.

Eurovision Song Contest 1973
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1973 was the 18th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was won by the Luxembourg entry, Tu te reconnaîtras, the voting was a very close one, with Spain finishing only 4 points behind and Cliff Richard of the United Kingdom another 2 points after. The city of Luxembourg, also known as Luxembourg City, is a co

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Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg. Host venue of the 1973 Eurovision Song Contest.

Eurovision Song Contest 1974
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1974 was the 19th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held in the resort of Brighton on the south coast of the United Kingdom. The BBC agreed to stage the event after Luxembourg, having won in both 1972 and 1973, declined on the grounds of expense to host the contest for a consecutive year. The winner o

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Brighton Dome, United Kingdom. Host venue of the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest.

Eurovision Song Contest 1975
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1975 was the 20th edition of the contest hosted by SR and held in Stockholm, Sweden. The arena for the event was the newly built Stockholmsmässan in Älvsjö in southern Stockholm, aBBAs victory in Brighton the previous year gave Sweden the right to host the contest for the first time. The Contest was won by Teach-In, who

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Stockholm International Fairs in Älvsjö, Stockholm. Host venue of the 1975 Eurovision Song Contest.

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Teach-In leaving from Amsterdam Airport for the European Song Contest 1975

Eurovision Song Contest 1976
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1976 was the 21st edition of the contest hosted by NOS and held in The Hague, Netherlands. The arena for the event was the Nederlands Congrescentrum, teach-Ins victory in Stockholm the previous year gave The Netherlands the right to host the contest for the third time. The Contest was won by Brotherhood of Man, who sang

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Nederlands Congrescentrum, The Hague. Host venue of the 1976 Eurovision Song Contest.

Eurovision Song Contest 1977
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1977 was the 22nd edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest, and was held in London, United Kingdom on 7 May 1977. The contest was won by Marie Myriam, representing France, with the song Loiseau et lenfant and this was Frances fifth victory, a record at the time. It was also Frances second victory on English soil, as

Eurovision Song Contest 1978
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1978 was the 23rd edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held on 22 April 1978 in Paris, the contest was won by Izhar Cohen & the Alphabeta who represented Israel with the song A-Ba-Ni-Bi. Although A-Ba-Ni-Bi is the title, French television mistakenly captioned on screen the song title as Ah-Bah-Nee-Bee. T

Eurovision Song Contest 1979
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1979 was the 24th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held on 31 March 1979 in Jerusalem, Israel, the event was staged at the International Convention Center. The presenters were Daniel Peer and Yardena Arazi, the winner was Israel with the song Hallelujah, performed by Gali Atari and Milk and Honey. Th

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The venue of the contest, International Convention Center in Jerusalem

Eurovision Song Contest 1980
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1980 was the 25th Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 19 April 1980 in The Hague. The presenter was Marlous Fluitsma, although each song was introduced by a presenter from the participating nation, in some cases, this was the same person providing the commentary. The contest was won by Johnny Logan, representing Irel

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Johnny Logan performing his winning song " What's Another Year "

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Katja Ebstein during rehearsals

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Maggie MacNeal during rehearsals

Eurovision Song Contest 1981
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1981 was the 26th event of its kind, and was held on 4 April 1981 at the Simmonscourt Pavilion of the Royal Dublin Society in Dublin. The presenter was Doireann Ní Bhriain, the United Kingdoms Bucks Fizz were the winners of this contest with the song Making Your Mind Up, beating second place Germany by four points. Dubli

Eurovision Song Contest 1982
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1982 was the 27th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held on 24 April 1982 in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, the German entrant, Nicole, was winner with the song Ein bißchen Frieden. Germany received 1.61 times as many points as runner-up Israel, which was a record under the current scoring system until 2

Eurovision Song Contest 1983
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1983 was the 28th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held in Munich, then West Germany, on 23 April 1983, corinne Hermes was the winner of this Eurovision with the song, Si la vie est cadeau. This was Luxembourgs fifth victory in the contest which equalled the record set by France in 1977 and it was al

Eurovision Song Contest 1984
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1984, the 29th event of its kind, was held on 5 May 1984 in Luxembourg. The presenter, Désirée Nosbusch, only 19 years old at the time, hosted the show in a lax manner, which was quite unusual for the show at the time. She manifested her fluency in four languages by switching between a strong transatlantic English, Frenc

Eurovision Song Contest 1985
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1985 was the 30th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held on 4 May 1985 in Gothenburg, Sweden, the presenter was entertainer Lill Lindfors, whose jokey dress rip after the interval act was said to have not amused the wife of EBU scrutineer Frank Naef. Were the winners with the song La det swinge, win f

Eurovision Song Contest 1986
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1986 was the 31st Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 3 May 1986 in Grieghallen in Bergen, Norway. It was the first occasion on which Norway played host to the contest, the presenter was Åse Kleveland, a well-known folk guitarist who was President of the Norwegian Association of Musicians. The 1986 contest was a firs

Eurovision Song Contest 1987
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1987 was the 32nd Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 9 May 1987 in Brussels, Belgium after Sandra Kims win the previous year. Johnny Logan was the winner for Ireland with the song Hold Me Now and that made him the first performer to win the contest twice, as he had won also in 1980. The 1987 Eurovision was the bigge

Eurovision Song Contest 1988
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1988 was the 33rd edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. The contest took place on 30 April 1988 in Dublin, Ireland, the presenters were Pat Kenny and Michelle Rocca. The host broadcaster was Radio Telefís Éireann which revamped the production style compared to its earlier editions. The winner was Switzerland wit

Eurovision Song Contest 1989
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1989 was the 34th annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held on 6 May 1989 in Lausanne, Switzerland, the program was presented by Lolita Morena and Jacques Deschenaux. Riva, representing Yugoslavia, won with the song Rock Me and this was the only victory for Yugoslavia as a unified state. The United Kingdoms Ray Caruana

Eurovision Song Contest 1990
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1990 was the 35th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held in Zagreb, Yugoslavia on 5 May 1990, the presenters were Helga Vlahović Brnobić and Oliver Mlakar. Toto Cutugno was the winner of this contest with the song Insieme,1992 and this was the second victory for Italy, the first one having been Non ho

Eurovision Song Contest 1991
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1991 was the 36th Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 4 May 1991 in Rome. Due to the Gulf War and mounting tensions in Yugoslavia, RAI decided to move the contest from Sanremo to Rome and this was the last event in which the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia participated. The 1992 contest saw the participation

Eurovision Song Contest 1992
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1992 was the 37th Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 9 May 1992 in Malmö, Sweden. The presenters were Lydia Cappolicchio and Harald Treutiger, Linda Martin, representing Ireland, was the winner of this Eurovision with the song Why Me. The song was written by Johnny Logan, who had won the 1980 contest as singer and t

Eurovision Song Contest 1993
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1993 was the 38th Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 15 May 1993 in Millstreet, County Cork, Ireland. Niamh Kavanagh was the winner of this Eurovision for Ireland with the song and this was Irelands fifth victory, and equalled the tally of five Eurovision victories achieved by France in 1977 and Luxembourg in 1983.

Eurovision Song Contest 1994
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1994 was the 39th Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 30 April 1994 in the Point Theatre in Dublin, Ireland. As of 2017, it was the last time the contest was held in April, the presenters were Cynthia Ní Mhurchú and Gerry Ryan. The pair hosted the evening in French, English and Irish, once again Ireland won the conte

Eurovision Song Contest 1995
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1995 was the 40th Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 13 May 1995 in the Point Theatre in Dublin, Ireland. This years competition was the last with one host until 18 years later in 2013 in Malmö. This contest broke the chain of victories that Ireland enjoyed in 1992,1993 and this was Irelands 3rd year in succession t

Eurovision Song Contest 1996
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1996 was the 41st Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 18 May 1996 in Oslo Spektrum in Oslo, Norway. The presenters were Ingvild Bryn and Morten Harket, Harket, lead singer of a-ha, opened the show with a performance of his single Heavens Not for Saints. Twenty-three countries participated in the contest, with Eimear